WASHINGTON – The Dolores River National Conservation Area and Special Management Area Act passed a Senate committee last week with bipartisan support.
Sponsored by Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, the bill would protect water resources and Outstandingly Remarkable Values (ORVs) – features that qualify rivers for Wild and Scenic designation – while safeguarding water rights, private property and Dolores Project allocations. It also proposes an alternative to Wild and Scenic designation.
The Dolores Project, a Bureau of Reclamation initiative, supplies water for agriculture, municipalities, recreation and wildlife in the Upper Colorado Basin using McPhee Dam.
Montezuma and La Plata county commissioners have urged Rep. Jeff Hurd, R-Colo., to introduce a House version of the bill. They called the legislation “one of the most extensive and inclusive collaborative efforts in Colorado’s public lands history.”
The bill, which last week cleared the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, cannot become law unless a House version also passes. In 2023, Rep. Lauren Boebert introduced the House companion while representing CD-3.
Hurd’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
“I’m very glad that Dolores NCA passed out of the committee out of the Senate with Senator Lee as chair and I will consult with Congressman Hurd and others to do whatever it is we can to try to get it over the finish line in 2026,” Bennet told The Durango Herald. “I’m just thrilled that it passed the committee.”
More than two dozen stakeholder groups and local and tribal governments have sent letters of support to Bennet. This marks the second time the bill passed out of the Senate committee unanimously.
A proposed act has been discussed for years. The Lower Dolores Plan Working Group formed in 2008 to study issues in the Dolores River corridor.
“Southwestern Coloradans care deeply about the Dolores River,” Hickenlooper said in a statement. “Leaders on the ground have spent years deciding how to best protect and invest in the Dolores. We worked with them side by side to design a bipartisan bill to preserve this landscape.”
Abigail Hatting is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a senior at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at ahatting@durangoherald.com.
